I'm considering my ONE New Year's Resolution. What shall it be this year? I like to get going early, to sort of take it out for a test drive, or swirl it around in my mouth, if you will. 

Right now, I'm thinking about limiting the amount of news I receive per day. By its very nature, the news we receive from all mediums is no better, nor is it any baser, than the salacious gossip between two people shared over a fence separating their pesticide-fueled lawns. Because we rarely know our neighbors well enough (if at all) to have a shared history, we seek a common tidbit of gossip with the world,  depending on the newslebrities to sate our need for a common thread with humanity. 

Never mind that we often get a surge of pleasure over other people's misfortune. 

Especially if they are rich people who have fallen on hard times. This especially includes gazillionare ponzi brokers.

Or movie stars arrested for a DUI. And political figures with self-destructive tendencies. Hint: To successfully pronounce Blagojevich, you have to reel it off without giving a pause in thought. Once you hesitate over "ye", as in Blah-go-ye-vich, you're toast. Ask Lou Dobbs.

It goes on and on. You know what I mean. Right now, it's the economy, stupid. I don't need to keep hearing about it. I know what it's doing to my life and so do you. We have to quit spending, cut up the credit cards, pay off the past debt and live under our means. We don't need Suzi Orman, Cramer or anyone else telling us what we should have done years ago. Save.

We don't need Oprah telling us how to live, either. She needs to work on her own issues and leave us to ours. She's got every advantage that a human on the face of the planet can have and she can't control her weight. I think there are a lot of people who are enjoying that irony. 

I don't need to have the Matt Lauers, Dianne Sawyers and Brian Williams' pretty people commiserating about the woeful "hard times" hitting the "average American." They are as far removed from the realities of everyday life as, hmmm, Bush. Does that mean they can't understand what has befallen millions of people? No, but I know this: They chase whatever content that will, from a ratings success standpoint,  fill the vacuum between commercials, which is what keeps their dough rolling.  It's a bizarre form of entertainment, cashing in on our very real problems.

Yup. I've talked myself into my next resolution. That one I did a couple of years ago didn't work out too well. This might be a keeper.